Declan Aherne, Ph.D. describes his background as follows: “I am a clinical psychologist and gestalt psychotherapist. I am the longest serving student counsellor in Ireland, working at the university of Limerick as Head of Services for 28 years. I am also Director of Oakwood, a private psychotherapy practice, the largest of its kind in Ireland. I have in the past publications in the area of stress and suicide. More recently my interests have been in primary mental health care service delivery and the over-prescribing of medication within this context. I presented a paper on this topic in the European parliament three years ago and last year hosted an international conference on the demedicalisation of primary mental health care, at which Jeffrey Magnavita was a keynote speaker amongst others.
These activities have been carried out as a co-ordinator of the European network of psychotherapeutic care, of which I am a member. I have been the Irish representative for psychotherapy as a specialism within psychology for many years at EFPA ( European Federation of {Psychological Associations). I am currently leader of numerous projects aimed at incorporating mindfulness practice within our graduate entry medical school and a primary school in a local disadvantaged community setting. I have been training GP’s for 24 years in personal development – The Human Doctor programme - in the mid-west GP training scheme, presenting our work at two world conferences (WONCA). As a special interest I am also an accredited sports psychologist and have incorporated mindfulness practice successfully within this discipline. I was the sports psychologist to the professional Munster rugby team for three seasons during which time we won two European Cups.”
“I am married 28 years to Jo, my soul mate. We have three great sons, Cian, Finbar and Jack. We live in Co. Limerick, but originally hail from Cork city in Ireland.”
David Van Nuys, PhD
Creator/Host of Shrink Rap Radio
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